Americans easily give up on their privacy, says Pew Research Centre

Americans say that they are very much concerned about their privacy and the way they share their personal data, whether it has to online or in the stores or the hospitals. They are very much confident that the Internet companies are taking your private data away.

However, according a new research from the Pew Research Center, Americans feels very secure in giving away their details through a medium that does not includes a phone, email or any other thing related to the Internet. Majority of Americans feel safe on sharing the information this way.

Though they are concerned about losing their privacy online, youths and a majority of people in another age group in-general blamed the trade-offs of the digital age. “The reason is often they don’t have real choice,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s not like picking up the newspaper and realizing ice cream has too many calories and you can start eating frozen yogurt, information that people can act on.”

Another important aspect is that the people are interested in services; it is not easy for them give on services from Google or Facebook.

“It’s this modern economy that doesn’t really rely on price, but on connections and stickiness,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “The companies have done everything they can to make it impossible to go somewhere else.”

“There’s a pretty big, mounting body of evidence that suggests young adults are just as likely to care, if not more so, when it comes to awareness of government surveillance,” said Mary Madden, a senior researcher for Pew’s Internet Project and an author of the report.

“The privacy survivalists will start exchanging PGP key prints, but that’s not going to work for most people,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “I think more needs to be done at the macro policy level to restore trust: update federal privacy laws, limit circumstances under which government gets access and mandate better security.”

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Abby is fun loving yet serious professional, born and raised in Sioux Falls, SD. She has a great passion for journalism, her family includes her husband, two kids, two dogs and herself. She has pursued her Mass Communication graduation degree from the Augustana College. She is currently employed at TheWestsideStory.net, an online news media company located in Sioux Falls, SD.